1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally related to the field of paintball guns. More particularly the invention relates to apparatuses for attaching paintball marker rapid loaders to the paintball gun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The sport of paintball war games continues to grow in popularity. During these war games, participants shoot frangible plastic balls full of a liquid dye at their opponents. The games are sometimes intensely competitive, requiring a participant to aim a gun, known also as a marker, at an opponent while pursuing, fleeing, dodging, or running for cover. Participants are excluded from further play once they have been hit and marked by a paintball. Success in the game requires the capability to fire a large number of paintballs in a short amount of time. A participant might discharge between several hundred and one thousand or more paintballs during the typical game lasting only a few minutes. Success in the game also requires player agility, which include being able to move run, dive, and roll for cover while carrying the marker.
Numerous variations of loaders have been developed with the objective of rapidly feeding paintballs to the marker and are well-known in the art. The typical loader includes a large hopper to store a supply of paintballs, generally 200 to 300 balls. Early loaders located the hopper above the marker's breech and relied on gravity to move paintballs from the hopper to the breech. U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,516 by Lorenzetti discloses one such apparatus. Forced feeding became necessary as firing rates increased and gravity alone could not propel paintballs to the marker's breech at the increased firing rates. U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,606 by Deak and U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,567 by Christopher are representative examples of the conventional power-driven paintball loader.
Increased firing rates also spurred increases in hopper sizes to allow longer durations between reloads. Hoppers have remained typically located at the top of the marker, even as powered feed mechanisms became commonplace, to retain a short, direct path between the loader and the marker's breech. The result is that by optimizing the feed path, the location of many loaders in play today make the combination of the marker and loader more unwieldy to handle during the extreme maneuvers of competitive paintball games.
Still other loaders have emerged to address the problem of a high profile loader by relocating the hopper and feed mechanism to a less prominent location. U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,042 by Harvey and U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,019 by Kostiopoulos disclose loaders in which the paintball storage hopper and feed mechanism are mounted below the marker's barrel to reduce the overall profile of the marker and loader combination. U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,953 by Andresen discloses a loader that is worn by the player and feeds the paintball marker by a flexible feed supply conduit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,252 by Stevens discloses a high capacity loader that can be positioned in a variety of locations distant from the marker breech, including in a backpack. Such remote loader mounting options are not without drawback. As the loaders are located further from the marker's breech, the force needed to push paintballs through the longer and more convoluted feed tubes increases the incidence of ruptured paintballs in the feed mechanism which temporarily renders the paintball marker unusable and often results in the paintball player being “marked” by an opponent.
It is therefore desirable to have an improved paintball loader that features a reliable, high feed-rate mechanism capable of supplying paintballs to the breech of a paintball marker at a rate of at least the marker's firing rate while minimizing the potential to rupture a paintball during the feed process. It is also desirable to have an improved paintball loader attached to the paintball marker in a manner that minimizes the target presented to the player's opponents and is easily handled during the physical maneuvers common in paintball games.